China's Soft Power To Enhance External Communication Strategy

In recent years, soft power is playing a more important role in international politics. Compared with the conventional hard power, which utilizes the military and economic strength, soft power draws support from some invisible factors, such as culture, value and ideology. Nowadays, with the tendency of globalization and informationization, countries fight more for winning the heart and support of the public.The enhancement of one's soft power mainly depends on international communication. Only when one's culture, value and ideology are widely spread and accepted by other countries, could its soft power be greatly enhanced. This is exactly what the media should do.This thesis analyzes the effect of communication upon soft power in modern China. When expounding the achievements, the article attaches more importance to the existing problems of the communication system. China has a relatively incompetent communication system compared with the U.S and other western states. As a result, China is facing great challenges in the global communication system dominated by the West when fostering a better national image and extending its influence.Accordingly, it's necessary for China to adopt some measures. On one hand, China has to make the most use of the global media system dominated by the West, that is, playing and exhibiting itself on other's stage; on the other, to China, what's more important is to establish and improve its own mass media system so as to break the press monopolization of the western states. This requires reforms to advance both the system and the concepts of propagation with the times. Meanwhile, media propagation should root in and further explore the rich cultural resources of China. Moreover, more investment in the media armamentarium and technology are needed, as well as training a host of professionals in media.